Podcast
Richer Retailer - Scaling Retail Stores Past 7 Figures
Hosted by RETAILMavens · EN
Are you lying awake at night, wondering how your store will make it through another month? Do you remember the excitement you felt when you first opened your doors, only to now find yourself drowning in inventory decisions and cash flow worries? Team? Family?
You’re not alone. As a mom and store owner who nearly lost everything – twice – I intimately understand the weight of these struggles. Those sleepless nights and constant stress almost made me walk away from my retail dreams entirely.
But here’s the truth that changed everything: retail success isn’t about working harder; it’s about working smarter with proven systems that actually work.
The Richer Retailer Podcast is your weekly guide to mastering the three pillars that revolutionize independent retail businesses: strategic inventory management, sustainable cash flow systems, and transformative leadership skills.
Ready to become richer? Not just in profits, but in time and freedom too? Join our vibrant community of ambitious retailers who are done with just surviving – they’re ready to thrive.
46episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
#091: Why a $300 Billion Company Just Bought a Fitness Race And What It Means For Your Store
2d ago00:17:29Tap to summarizeLVMH, the luxury empire behind Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Moët, just moved to buy a stake in HyROX, a fitness race, in a deal that values it at up to a billion dollars. Cathy couldn't stop thinking about it, and not because she cares about fitness races. In this solo episode, Cathy breaks down why one of the biggest luxury companies in the world is pulling back on traditional ads and pouring money into belonging instead. She walks through the three-rung Experience Ladder LVMH has climbed, from borrowing an audience, to building an experience inside their own stores, to owning a piece of the thing itself, and shows exactly what each rung looks like for a store doing this on a fraction of that budget. She also shares her own story of building a customer tradition with four walls and a photographer, long before she had any of this figured out. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why the biggest luxury brand in the world is spending less on ads and more on belonging, and what that means for your marketing budget How to "borrow" an audience your best customer already loves, without building anything from scratch What it looks like to "build" an experience inside your own store that can't be bought online How to "own" an experience so it becomes something your town expects from you every year Why a sale gets someone to buy once, but an experience builds an identity that keeps them coming back Key Takeaways [05:15] Rung One: Borrow the Experience [11:40] Rung Two: Build the Experience [16:30] Rung Three: Own the Experience [21:00] Why This Builds Identity, Not Just Sales Your Millie Moment: This week, just rung one. Nothing more. Identify your single best customer, the one who buys without a sale and tells her friends about you Ask what she's already showing up for, a race, a festival, a studio, a church event Find the smallest way to put your store's name next to it: sponsor a raffle, donate a gift bag, set up a small display Don't build anything and don't host anything. Just show up where she already is. One customer. One thing they already love. One small way to borrow it. Resources & Links Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we'll identify your growth opportunities and map out your most profitable next steps. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that's both profitable and sustainable. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: A sale gets someone to buy once. An experience gets them to decide who they are. Every dollar you spend on belonging instead of an ad is a dollar that keeps working long after the sale ends.
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#090: Sales Are Up. So Why Does It Feel So Hard?: State of Retail Q3
1w ago00:23:57Tap to summarizeSales are coming in. Just... slower and harder to get than they used to be. If you've felt like you're working just as hard as last year but getting less for it, Cathy wants you to know: it's not you, and it's not just a feeling. In this solo episode, Cathy breaks down what's actually happening in retail right now, a cautiously warm environment where spending is up but transactions per store are down, shoppers are spreading their money across more stops, and import costs are creeping up on the other side. Then she gets specific about the three things that will keep your Q3 profitable: your margins, your in-store advantage, and a metric most store owners never check. She also makes the case for why the store that reads her numbers before reacting always beats the store that just tries something. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why margin math done today decides whether you're profitable in November How to check your initial markup and why your bestsellers are the wrong place to compete on price The real reason your clearance sale needs to be done and wrapped before fall inventory arrives Why one recurring in-store event beats five one-off events, and two ways to run one that actually builds loyalty How to calculate items per sale and use it to catch the sales you're losing without realizing it Key Takeaways [01:30] The State of Q3: Cautiously Warm, Not Cold [06:45] Checking Your Initial Markup and Why It Matters Now [12:10] Getting Your Clearance Sale Done Before Fall [17:20] One Recurring Event: Your In-Store Advantage [24:05] Items Per Sale: The Metric That Protects Your Profit [31:40] Read Your Numbers Before You React Your Millie Moment: This week, pull your numbers before you make a single move. Pull your top 20 bestsellers and check the initial markup on each one Calculate your items per sale for this June and compare it to last June, not last month Pick one thing from today's episode, margin, clearance, recurring event, or items per sale, and take one action on it this week If your week feels slow, sit down and find out why before you post a sale or take a promotion you didn't plan One number checked. One action taken. That's how you stay ahead of fall instead of catching up to it. Resources & Links Grab your ticket to the Clearance Strategy that WORKS workshop Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we'll identify your growth opportunities and map out your most profitable next steps. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that's both profitable and sustainable. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: The holiday season doesn't fix a shaky foundation, it amplifies whatever's already there. Get your margins, your clearance sale, and your team's items-per-sale habit locked in now, while there's still time to change your results.
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#089: AI, Mindset, and Why Busy Is Not the Same as Smart with Chelsea Jones
2w ago00:27:55Tap to summarizeChelsea Jones has spent over 20 years building websites for some of the most recognizable names in retail; J.Lo Beauty, Liverpool Los Angeles, Chroma Wellness, and more. As co-founder of Sunny Road, a Shopify Platinum agency, she works with retail brands every day and sees exactly where they're leaving money on the table. In this episode, Chelsea and Cathy get into what's actually happening in AI search right now, why your products may not be showing up when shoppers search on ChatGPT or Perplexity, and how to fix it. Chelsea also breaks down why most people are using AI wrong and the simple shift that changes your results. But this conversation goes deeper than tech. Chelsea shares how she filters out distractions, protects her time, and keeps moving forward even after going through cancer and rebuilding from scratch. If you've ever felt busy all day but not sure what you actually moved forward, this one is for you. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why your products may be invisible in AI search and what to do about it The feedback loop approach to AI that actually gets results How to filter signals from noise when everything feels urgent Why fear should make you curious, not stop you The one daily question Chelsea asks herself to stay on track Key Takeaways [03:21] Leveraging AI for E-commerce Growth [05:28] Feedback Loops and Continuous Improvement [14:07] Establishing Effective Filters for Decision Making [16:52] The Importance of Rest and Intentionality [20:25] Overcoming Fear and Embracing Curiosity Your Millie Moment: This week, find out if your store is showing up where shoppers are actually searching. Go to AgentShop.com and run the free audit See exactly where your products are visible and where they're not across AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity Pick one gap from the audit and research how to fix it Then ask yourself: if you repeated yesterday every single day, would you be closer to your goals? Write down one thing you're doing that isn't moving your store forward and decide what happens to it this week One audit. One honest question. Two things that cost you nothing but could change a lot. Resources & Links Free Audit: AgentShop.com run it and find out if your products are showing up in AI search Connect with Chelsea Jones and Sunny Road, Shopify design, development, and conversion rate optimization for retail brands Need an AI playbook for your store? Visit Chelsea's consultancy at Shop Playbook Follow Chelsea on Instagram she shows up on the beach every morning and it's worth following Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we'll identify your growth opportunities and map out your most profitable next steps. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that's both profitable and sustainable. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: Adding another tool won't fix a scattered strategy. If everything feels urgent and nothing feels clear, the answer isn't more, it's a better filter. Chelsea breaks down exactly how she builds one in this episode.
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#088: White Space Is Not a Luxury. It's a Strategy with Joey Gourdji - Part 2
3w ago00:34:48Tap to summarizeIn Part 1, Cathy and Joey talked about clearing the calendar. Going from 38 meetings a week to 11. Identifying what was water, what was food, and what was mushroom coffee. Part 1 was about seeing the problem clearly. Part 2 is about what you actually do with the space once you have it and why most people quietly fill it right back up. Joey is back, and this time they go into the practical frameworks, the mindset work that holds all of it together, and the one daily habit that Cathy says has changed her more than anything else she's done. She also tells herself about the period she stopped doing it and what happened. What You'll Learn in This Episode The SLED framework, four categories of choices that create white space and keep it from disappearing again: Stopping low-impact activities, setting Limits on your calendar, building Efficiencies into your high-impact work, and Delegating what you've convinced yourself only you can do Why ambitious store owners go back to their old habits even after a real breakthrough and why that's not a character flaw, it's your brain doing exactly what brains do The Effort/Impact Matrix and how to use it to put real dollar numbers on what stays and what goes because "directionally accurate" is all you need to start making better decisions The four levels of consciousness (To Me, By Me, Through Me, As Me) and why the state you're in when you make a decision matters as much as the decision itself Key Takeaways [03:10] The overwhelm flywheel, how overcommitment leads to worse decisions, worse results, and more pressure, and what it looks like when it spins the other way [07:27] SLED: the four categories that create white space and a simple way to remember them [09:25] How to use the Effort/Impact Matrix with real numbers not just percentages so your gut instincts have something to lean on [19:30] Box breathing: why one round before you respond to a hard situation changes the outcome more than you'd expect [21:09] Positive brainwashing, how to identify your automatic negative thoughts, write the antidote, and record the version of yourself you're becoming Resources & Links Free Download: Become Her grab it and follow along as you listen Connect with Joey Gourdji and Conversion Engineering Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we'll identify your growth opportunities and map out your most profitable next steps. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that's both profitable and sustainable. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram Your Millie Moment Write down one automatic negative thought you notice yourself running this week. Just one. It might be "I have to do this myself," or "I don't have time," or "it's not that big a deal." You don't have to fix it today. Just name it. That's where the rewiring starts. Then grab the Become Her download in the show notes. It walks you through exactly what to do next. 💚 Remember: If every single thing on your list feels high impact and urgent, that's not a prioritization problem. That's overwhelming talk. When your brain is scattered, the matrix won't save you. Getting centered first, that's the actual first step. Joey and Cathy get into exactly how in this episode.
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#087: White Space Is Not a Luxury. It's a Strategy with Joey Gourdji - Part 1
4w ago00:42:39Tap to summarizeCathy had 38 meetings a week and no open space on her calendar. She couldn't eat lunch without it being scheduled around something else. Her business was growing, she was delegating, and she still couldn't get ahead. Then she started working with Joey Gourdji and got it down to 11 meetings a week. Joey is a coach at Conversion Engineering, the agency she runs with her husband Ross. She spent a decade in online education, finishing as Director of Operations at Mirasee, where she was part of the team that grew the company from $5M to $13M and from 20 to 100+ people. She also grew up watching her mother build a retail store from scratch so she understands this world in a way most coaches don't. In this episode, Cathy and Joey lay out the foundation of how that calendar transformation actually happened, the framework, the hard parts, and the moment Cathy laughed out loud at the idea that any of it was possible. Cathy is also honest that she's partially backsliding, and that's in here too. This is Part 1. Part 2 is coming. What You'll Learn in This Episode What white space actually is, why it's not just free time, and the three ways you should be using it if you want your business and your life to stop feeling like they're fighting each other The water, food, and mushroom coffee framework, the exercise that helps you see what your business genuinely cannot survive without, versus what just fills your week and feels productive Why ambitious, hardworking store owners end up with the most overloaded calendars and why that's not a character flaw, it's a pattern What self-sabotage looks like when you're the one running the show and why most people don't see it until someone else points it out Key Takeaways: [02:18] Why Cathy's calendar had no open space even after she thought she'd been delegating and what Joey saw immediately when she looked at it [09:37] What white space actually means, and why "open space" and "uncommitted time" both miss the point [14:41] The water, food, and mushroom coffee framework and why Cathy put everything in the water column the first time she tried it [23:44] The carrot analogy that explains why pulling good things off your list is what lets the right things grow [32:16] What got you here won't get you there and why the habits that built your business may be exactly what's keeping you stuck now Your Millie Moment Take a piece of paper and write three columns: water, food, mushroom coffee. Water is the two or three things your business genuinely cannot survive without for even a week. For most retailers that's knowing your numbers, staying on top of your inventory, and managing your team. Now look at your calendar for this week. How many of your meetings, tasks, and commitments are actually water? How many are mushroom coffee you've been treating like water? You don't have to fix it today. Just see it clearly first. That's where this starts. Resources & Links Free Download:Your companion guide to this episode grab it and follow along as you listen Connect with Joey Gourdji and Conversion Engineering Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we'll identify your growth opportunities and map out your most profitable next steps. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that's both profitable and sustainable. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚Remeber: If you genuinely cannot carve out thinking time in your week right now, that's not a scheduling problem. It's data. It's telling you something about the state of your business and the state of your mind. Part 2 is coming, and it gets into exactly what to do about it.
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#086: Celebrating Anti-Prime Day with Jessie McNaughton
Jun 800:30:33Tap to summarizeJuly is slow. Every store owner knows it. So when Jesse McNaughton, co-founder of Lift Bridge Yarns in Fairport, New York, decided to run a four-day Anti-Prime Days campaign instead of just waiting for things to pick up, she wasn't sure what would happen. She ended up with a 286% increase in sales. Jesse opened Lift Bridge Yarns four months before the pandemic, with a six-month-old baby at home and a community of customers who followed her from a previous shop. She and her co-founder Dawn built the business from the ground up, community first, sales second, and that foundation is exactly what made Anti-Prime Days work so well. In this episode, Cathy sits down with Jesse to break down every detail: what deals she ran, why the humor worked, how her team took it and ran with it, and what she'd do differently. Jesse also shares what it actually looks like to build a shop that people call their "happy place", and why that kind of community doesn't just feel good, it pays. What You'll Learn in This Episode: What the Anti-Prime Days strategy is, why it works, and how a yarn shop in upstate New York used it to turn their slowest month into one of their best The specific deals Jesse ran, percentage off accessories, BOGO 70% off, and a $15 bounce back coupon with no minimum, and what each one actually cost her (spoiler: less than you'd think) Why the humor in their marketing, yes, including the "Jeff Bezos sucks, but we don't" email header worked because it was genuinely on brand How a team with essentially zero marketing budget drove results with a $50 Facebook boost and an email schedule Key Takeaways: [04:37] Why July was the perfect month for a promo push, and how Jesse structured four days of different deals to keep customers coming back [06:02] The $15 bounce back coupon with no minimum purchase, and why fewer restrictions on offers almost always works in your favor [07:15] The real math behind Buy One, Get One 70% Off, Jesse's average discount came out to 27%, not the 70% it sounds like [13:48] Why community-first isn't just a feel-good philosophy, it's what makes campaigns like this actually land Your Millie Moment: Pick one slow week on your calendar, it doesn't have to be July, and plan your own version of Anti-Prime Days. You don't need a big budget. You need four days, a few well-thought-out deals, and the willingness to be a little bit bold about it. Jesse did it with $50 in boosted posts and an email list. She followed the plan, ran the deals, and ended up with a 286% sales lift. The plan works. You just have to do it. Resources & Links: Connect with Jesse and the Lift Bridge Yarns community: liftbridgeyarns.com | @liftbridgeyarns on Instagram | email her at jessie@liftbridgeyarns.com | nyfibertrail.com Your Store Days: Learn how to turn Amazon Prime Days into your own store event. Some retailers have seen sales jump 176%! Get the full strategy, email templates, and press release guide. Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we’ll identify your growth opportunities and map out the most profitable next steps to elevate your visibility, attract the right customers, and scale with confidence. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club, focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that’s both profitable and sustainable. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: Your community is not a marketing tactic. It never was. The people who walk through your doors, tell you it's their happy place, and show up for every event you run, they are the business. Take care of them, give them something to rally behind, and the sales will follow every single time.
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#085: Disaster Recovery for Retail Store Owners: Heart on Main Street with Patrick Kaiser
Jun 100:28:20Tap to summarizeYou have built something real. The inventory, the team, the loyal customers who come back year after year. What happens if all of that gets wiped out not by a bad buying decision or a slow season, but by a hurricane, a flood, a fire, or a ceiling that collapses the day before your biggest event? Most store owners have never thought about it. And the ones who have faced it will tell you: there is almost no one coming to help. Not FEMA, not the Red Cross, not the grants that end up going somewhere else. You are mostly on your own. That's the gap Patrick Kaiser saw. And instead of talking about it, he built an organization to close it. Patrick is the founder of Heart on Main Street, a nonprofit built specifically to help independent retailers recover from natural disasters and catastrophic events. Three years in, they have worked in the Southeast, Tornado Alley, Florida, California, and Hawaii. Cathy sits down with him to talk about what that help actually looks like and what every store owner should do right now, before anything ever happens. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why independent retailers fall through the cracks when disaster hits and why federal aid and insurance don't fill the gap The three ways Heart on Main Street helps: direct financial grants, the Jumpstart program (wholesale product donations that can turn $5,000 into $12–15,000 in retail margin), and on-the-ground volunteer rebuilds The one thing you can do this week to protect yourself, a quick phone video of your store that could make or break an insurance claim Key Takeaways [02:08] What drove Patrick to build Heart on Main Street after Hurricane Ian [06:22] How the Jumpstart program works and what wholesale product donations mean in practice [20:07] The practical prep every store owner should do before disaster strikes Your Millie Moment Pull out your phone this week and do a walk-through video of your entire store; inventory, equipment, computers, displays, all of it. Save it to the cloud. That two minutes of footage could be the difference between a paid insurance claim and starting over from scratch. Then go to heartonmainstreet.org and bookmark it. Share it with one other store owner in your world. You may never need it. But a Millie protects what she's built before she needs to. Resources & Links Heart on Main Street exists for moments like this. If your store has been hit by a disaster or if you want to support the store owners who have, visit heartonmainstreet.org to apply, donate, or learn how to get involved. Ready for more? Catch the full recorded webinar with Cathy and Patrick and walk away with a plan you can use in your store today. Watch here. Follow Heart on Main Street on Instagram and Facebook and find the Main Street Matters podcast. Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we’ll identify your growth opportunities and map out the most profitable next steps to elevate your visibility, attract the right customers, and scale with confidence. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club, focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that’s both profitable and sustainable. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: Your store is the backbone of your community. The people in your town notice when you close and they celebrate when you come back. That's worth protecting.
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#084: The Inventory Engine Workshop - Part 3
May 2500:28:18Tap to summarizeYou have done the math. You know the metrics. Now comes the part where it gets real. This is Part 3 of the Inventory Engine Workshop, the Q&A. Cathy and Coach Maven Dana Connell open the floor to the questions store owners actually lose sleep over. What do you do when your open to buy says one thing and your gut says another? How do you handle reorders when the cash just isn't there? What does asking a vendor for markdown dollars even mean, and are you really allowed to do that? And what happens when sales don't work or at least, you think they don't? No scripts. No filler. Real answers. And at the end, Cathy closes out the series with the one analogy that ties everything together. Your store is a car. Your inventory is the engine. And a well-tuned engine is the difference between a go-slow store and one that cruises toward a million dollars in sales. This is where the system comes together. What You'll Learn in This Episode What to do when your open to buy number and your instincts are pointing in opposite directions How to handle reorders when there isn't enough cash to place them Why 60 to 90 days is the cutoff and what it means when a product hasn't moved by then The difference between a promo and a strategic sale, and why only one of them actually moves dead stock How long it realistically takes a new retailer to get the 90-day inventory flywheel working Key Takeaways [06:55] Understanding Open to Buy and Inventory Turnover [09:46] Strategies for Fresh Inventory and Customer Engagement [13:03] The Importance of Markdowns and Cash Flow [16:02] Vendor Relationships and Negotiation Tactics [18:50] Community Engagement and Event Planning Resources & Links If your shelves are full but your bank account isn't, the Inventory Engine is where that changes. In 90 days, we'll run the Sale That Works to clear your dead stock and put cash back in your pocket, install the Inventory Genie to show you exactly which categories are working and which are dragging you down, fix your markup so every extra dollar drops straight to gross profit, and build your Perfect Purchasing Plan so every order has a rationale and every dollar has a purpose. We only take a handful of stores at a time. Apply for one of the remaining June spots here. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: Inventory is not a guessing game. It never was. You now have the system, the numbers, and the framework to make your inventory work as hard as you do. The only thing left is to use it.
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#083: The Inventory Engine Workshop - Part 2
May 1800:43:41Tap to summarizeYour floor can look full and your bank account can still feel empty. That is not a mystery. It is a math problem. And once you see the numbers behind it, you cannot unsee them. This is Part 2 of the Inventory Engine Workshop. Cathy and Coach Maven Dana Connell are back, and this time they get into the metrics, the ones that tell you, without any guessing, exactly how healthy your inventory really is. Inventory turn. Stock to sales ratio. The 90-Day Freshness Factor. The 48% rule. Never Out Ofs. And a live audit that walks through a real store's numbers from start to finish. If you have ever bought something just because the money was sitting in the account, stressed on a flight home from a trade show wondering if you spent too much, or worked harder than ever while sales stayed flat, this episode was made for you. Part 3 is coming. But do not skip this one. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why your inventory turn rate is the single clearest sign of how well your cash is flowing What the stock to sales ratio tells you and how to calculate it for your store right now Why at least half your inventory should be less than 90 days old What Never Out Ofs are and why most store owners don't keep enough of them in stock How to run a quick inventory audit using just three numbers you already have Key Takeaways [05:48] Stock to Sales Ratio: The Formula and How to Use It [08:30] The 90-Day Freshness Factor [10:40] The 48% Rule for Inventory Spending [19:01] Never Out Ofs: The Fuel That Keeps Your Store Running [32:50] Live Inventory Audit: Real Numbers, Real Results Resources & Links If your shelves are full but your bank account isn't, the Inventory Engine is where that changes. In 90 days, we'll run the Sale That Works to clear your dead stock and put cash back in your pocket, install the Inventory Genie to show you exactly which categories are working and which are dragging you down, fix your markup so every extra dollar drops straight to gross profit, and build your Perfect Purchasing Plan so every order has a rationale and every dollar has a purpose. We only take a handful of stores at a time. Apply for one of the remaining June spots here. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: Wait for Part 3! Inventory is not just products on your shelves. It is cash waiting to move. Now you have the numbers to make it move in the right direction. You showed up, you did the work, and that already puts you ahead. Part 3 is coming and that is where the system comes together.
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#082: The Inventory Engine Workshop - Part 1
May 1100:24:18Tap to summarizeInventory is not a guessing game. It is a financial tool. It's wealth building in real time. And if you've ever felt like money moves through your store but you can't quite track where it goes, this episode is for you. This is Part 1 of a special live workshop episode. Cathy sat down with our very own Coach Maven Dana Connell, retail professor at Columbia College Chicago and former buyer for Marshall Field's and Macy's for a live Inventory Engine Workshop. Dana has been running Open to Buy every single Monday for 43 years. She has seen every inventory mistake in the book and she knows exactly how to fix them. Together, Cathy and Dana walk you through the foundation of Open to Buy, what it is, why it matters, and how it works as the engine that keeps your cash flowing and your store healthy. This one is practical from start to finish. No fluff. Just two people who have spent decades inside retail numbers, teaching you how to use them. Part 2 is coming. But start here. What You'll Learn in This Episode What Open to Buy actually is and why Cathy calls it insurance for her cash Why that dusty inventory on your shelves is not just a problem, it's trapped wealth Why buying on gut feel is an expensive habit even when your instincts are good Why your store is a brand and what your inventory has to do with that Key Takeaways [05:54] The Importance of Open to Buy [09:07] Inventory Management as a Financial Tool [12:02] Creating an Intentional Assortment [14:58] The Role of Branding in Retail Resources & Links If your shelves are full but your bank account isn't, the Inventory Engine is where that changes. In 90 days, we'll run the Sale That Works to clear your dead stock and put cash back in your pocket, install the Inventory Genie to show you exactly which categories are working and which are dragging you down, fix your markup so every extra dollar drops straight to gross profit, and build your Perfect Purchasing Plan so every order has a rationale and every dollar has a purpose. We only take a handful of stores at a time. Apply for one of the remaining June spots here. Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram 💚 Remember: Wait for Part 2! Your inventory is not just products on shelves. It is wealth in progress. The fact that you showed up today to learn this already matters. Manage your inventory like the investment it is and watch what happens to your store. You've got this. And Part 2 is coming soon.
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